I spent the last couple of days thinking I needed to say something, that I wanted to say something. Now that I’m sitting in front of the keyboard and staring at the monitor, my fingers and my brain aren’t communicating; I don’t know what to write. What is there to say about Bowie that hasn’t already been said? What could I, who never met him, never saw him in person, and much to my chagrin, never saw him perform live, possibly add? That he affected my life in ways he never knew. I’m sure I’m not alone in expressing that sentiment; rather, I’m likely one of millions of voices shouting the same thing. But it doesn’t make it any less true. He was an inspiration to me in so many ways. I don’t even know where to begin… I still can’t believe he’s gone. We are all richer for his life and the gifts he gave to all of us–music, movies, raising social consciousness, laughter, inspiration. The least we could do is celebrate those gifts and the life of the man who gave them to us. Thank you, David Bowie. Thank...

It’s amazing how time can get away from you, especially if you’re in a place where you’re not taking much care to watch how it’s flitting by. Or speeding by. The last post I wrote here said I finished writing the sequel to Omni in 2012. Yes, 2012. As it so happens, the world didn’t end. Just like the world didn’t end, the sequel to Omni (Omni 2: the Omniing—no, that’s not the title; it’s an inside joke) wasn’t published. That means, of course, that I still haven’t completely finished the book. How is it that I finished writing a book more than a year ago, yet haven’t said anything further about it, let alone published it? Good question. Indulge me for a moment as I recall a quick story. Years ago, when talking to a gentleman I opened the conversation with, “Hi. How are you today?” (I actually wanted a response–it’s not a greeting, damn it.) His response was roughly thus, “Interesting. I’ve had an interesting day.” As we continued to speak he told me the meaning of his response. “When I was training, I was taught that when you’re having a bad day and you don’t want the other person to know, you say you’re having an ‘interesting’ day.” With that in mind, 2013 was interesting in a lot of ways. However, in just as many ways as it was painful, last year was also a time of exponential growth and unexpected positives that, on the whole, turned what could have been a festering, rotting pile of rubbish into a pretty—albeit small—flower bed. It’s not often you get dealt...

Technically this update is a couple of days late, but that’s because I’ve been working on something new. What exactly? I’ll get to that, but first, it’s official: the first draft to the sequel to Omni is finished! As of some time Thursday evening I completed the manuscript at the end of a marathon writing session. Unfortunately, as you may have guessed the title of this post, I don’t have a name for the book. Not a clue. Nope. Seriously. I have no idea what to call it. That usually comes later, sometimes after everything else has been completed. Speaking of completion, I had been thinking I was close to finishing the book for several days, but it wasn’t until Thursday that I actually saved the file, pushed myself away from the keyboard (I was sitting at my desktop computer instead of writing on a notebook like usual), and knew I was done. Now, don’t get me wrong: I still have a lot of work to do on the story before it’s ready. Before I even get to my revisions, I’m going to sit on the story for a while. After enough time passes that I’m able to come back to it with a fresh perspective and hard, critical eyes, I’ll start cutting and shaping the story. From there, it’ll need to be edited and I’ll get some beta feedback. I also need to whip up a cover, which means contacting Igor again and hoping he has time in his schedule for yet one more commission. Once all of that is done and I make my final changes, it’s...

It’s been a while since I’ve blathered here, and I’m afraid this will be on the short side, but I want to take a moment to promote a guest post I have on White Knight Studio’s blog. It’s all about the weird names in fantasy books (mine included!) and why however you choose to pronounce those names, you’re right. You can find it here: A rose by any other name, or, the reader is always right. With the obligatory self-promotion out of the way, on to the additional self-promotion! I’m actually fairly close to finishing the first draft of the sequel to Omni. I don’t have a title for the story just yet, and it’ll definitely still be a while to go through revision, editing, proof-reading, and all of those fun (and sometimes frustrating) stages, then it’ll be ready. I’m not going to guarantee that it’ll be ready before this year is over (I may end up missing the end of the world–are we still making fun of that?), but it won’t be far beyond if so. I’m excited to get it finished up and get it into people’s hands. Omni was something of an experiment in its genesis, and because of the way that book came together, I struggled with it in spots. I haven’t had anywhere near the same problems with the sequel, and in fact, have been able to explore some characters and backstory that I didn’t get the chance to get into with the first book. It is my hope that this story will help to fill in some blanks while also proving to be...

So if you missed the news the other day, I clicked the big gold button and published Reborn. (Shh, the big gold button is supposed to be a secret.) If I had thought that I learned everything I could learn after publishing Omni, then I was seriously wrong. Luckily, I knew I still had a lot to learn, and even now, know that is still the case. Despite that, the entire process of developing Reborn—writing, revising, editing, and ultimately, publishing—turned out to be more instructive than I would have guessed. While I certainly learned much in my first go-round, here’s a few things I picked up from this most recent experience. 1. Every bookstore publishes at a different rate This may seem obvious, but despite thinking that I understood what to expect from each bookstore, I’ve been astounded to discover that not only did I guess wrong on when the book would be available, I really didn’t learn anything from my first experience. For example, when I published Omni, Barnes & Noble took roughly three days to make the book available. As of the time I’m writing this, Reborn is now finally available on Barnes & Noble after spending… approximately three days in their system getting processed. So much for learning the first time around. Additionally, I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly Apple made the book available in iTunes. With Omni, it took weeks because I had to wait for my account to be approved, but now that I’m in? I’m not sure, but Apple may have even beaten Amazon to making Reborn available to the public the...

It’s been a heck of a journey writing, revising, editing, and finalizing this book, and now all of that time, hard work, and hours spent banging my head against whatever surface I could find has come to fruition. Though not ever seller updates at the same pace (even though I uploaded the files at roughly the same time), Reborn is now available on the Kindle Bookstore and Apple’s iTunes Bookstore. Slow and steady comes in third, and Barnes & Noble now has it. For now, enjoy! It’s been a labor of love and I’m off to my next project: the sequel to Omni, which is roughly 75%...

I hate delays. There’s really no other way to say it. With few exceptions, an unwanted delay is almost always a frustrating experience. I’d love to get into the details of why everything has taken so long, but it wouldn’t make for a particularly interesting story so I’ll spare you the details. However, I will mention that part of the reason for the delay has to do with me being something of an idiot and overly confident. That’s usually the start of a good story, right? I hate to disappoint, but I’m simply a clumsy oaf. Granted, I was on inline skates for the first time in over a dozen years (perhaps the LA Kings’ Stanley Cup victory inspired me to throw some skates on and grab a hockey stick, but the truth is I’ve been thinking about it for years). I was doing well despite the obvious tragic ending. Let’s just say that I need to relearn some basic skills, including spin stops. Definitely those. A hard lesson learned is that as you get older, your body doesn’t react the same way it does when you’re young. For those of you perhaps still in your teens or early twenties, you may feel invulnerable. The mere thought of injury, outside of something heinous, never crosses your mind, and surely something as simple as falling to the ground can’t be dangerous. Add a few years to that and things suddenly change. Your body doesn’t heal as quickly, and just as importantly, is injured more easily. Damage you could take at twenty and bounce back from in a day or two...

That’s a fine question, and unfortunately, the answer is: delayed. I could go into a details about why it has taken me so long to get everything finalized, but I’ll save you the boring part and answer instead with: things have taken (and are taking) longer than I anticipated. It’s been a learning experience. I ought to have a better idea what to expect next time, but for now, my goal is to get Reborn out as quickly as possible (ideally any day now). Though the final text is all but completed (I have a couple of typos to squash), a few little details remain to be finalized, so as soon as it all comes together, I’ll definitely post something here. And maybe twitter. And Google+. Possibly Facebook. Sorry for the...

Reborn, my next book and the beginning of a new trilogy, is almost finished and will be available in May 2012! Woo! Reborn is an epic fantasy, though it may be a little more accurate to call it a dark fantasy. Omni, while a fantasy, is much more contemporary, Reborn harkens back to the days of swords and sorcery, with a touch of horror to keep things interesting. For Justin Detrier, he has always lived in the shadow of his brother Morgan, the bigger, stronger brother. Morgan was the chosen one, destined to face the Scourge of Kallandin, an evil wizard who has threatened the land for years. Justin has accepted his fate with grace and humility, but when cryptic rumors become reality and Morgan is no longer capable of facing down the kingdom’s oldest foe, it’s up to Justin to save the kingdom, only he can’t: the Scourge has cursed him. Dejected, forlorn, and without hope, Justin must find strength he doesn’t know he has and find a way to save the kingdom when no one else believes the threat that hangs over them. A story of courage, family, pain, and vicious action, Reborn is an uncompromising beginning in this dark fantasy trilogy. Reborn has been a blast to write, and it’s also been instructive. Whether it’s in writing or just life in general, it’s important to try new things, and with this story, I’ve definitely done that. I’m not used to using elements of horror in my writing, and it’s been a bit of a challenge to work it into a story that I never originally viewed...

I have a broad range of interests–whether it comes with being a writer or not I don’t know–and I’m not afraid to admit to some of my nerdier ones. Do you remember the weird kids in high school who’d sit in a little circle, or maybe at a table at lunch, holding a sheet of paper and rolling dice? No, they weren’t the local bookie and craps dealer at your school, rather they were the ones playing some sort of RPG (role-playing game). Heck, maybe you were one of them–I know I was. I had two games of choice back then: Advanced Dungeon & Dragons (2nd edition), and Heroes Unlimited. Everyone has heard of D&D, be it good, bad, or otherwise, but I’m willing to bet most people haven’t heard of Heroes Unlimited. It’s a shame, really, because Palladium makes some pretty cool games. While I had a group of buddies I’d play AD&D with, I only had one other friend who would play HU. It was a fun change of pace because it’s all about being an over-the-top comic book hero and doing heroic things. What kid, teen, or adult wouldn’t love to do that? By that logic, I must be a big comics fan, right? Not at all. Never have been. I have nothing against them, and do find myself reading a graphic novel here and there, but I don’t think I ever read a single one before I was 27 or 28. I’ve always enjoyed words and never found myself wanting pictures in the story itself. I’m weird that way. This, of course, leads us to...